Pokemon Go. Who's playing it?

[Kustom Kid]

So I know it isn't technically available for our friends across the pond in Europe, but who got sucked into this game? I'd say a solid 80% of the people I work with play. Granted I work with mostly Millennials. It's also a good way to trick my son into walking around and exercising. Let's not forget the nostalgia....and it's fun to boot.

[Draco1962]

I collected 32 pokemon sitting at my desk at work yesterday and leveled up 5 times. Some fool kept setting out lures at our building which is a Pokestop. I hope he does the same today.

[hansolo77]

I have no interest in playing this ridiculous game.  Everybody where I work plays it.  They're spending more time with there faces in their phones than they are acknowledging and helping our customers or doing their jobs.  On the other hand, I did try to install it the other day on my phone, and GooglePlay said my phone was incompatible.  So there, I have a valid excuse.  People need to get a life.  There's too much drama already happening because of this game (people getting mugged/killed, etc).

[Kustom Kid]

People are being stupid. There are 15 stops and 3 gyms where I work, so I see a lot of people being dumb. No one has been mugged yet though so there's that. Fortunately, the employees here are pretty good about phone use, so guest experience hasn't been affected yet.

[Draco1962]

People can get mugged or killed selling or responding to an ad in the newspaper classifides or Craigs List. No matter what, there is a risk of being a victim of a lure attack. You can mitigate your chances of being a victim by using just a modicum of common sense - Don't trust anyone. Don't meet alone. Meet in a public place. If it seems too good it probably is so don't do it. Of course, you can wall yourself behind a wall of concrete blocks and razor ribbon whilst dressing in bubble wrap armor and a protective helmet, but I don't think that it would be much fun or a life worth living afraid.

[Adultery]

I've been playing, it's kind of rad. No Pokemon by my office though. When I drove to work this morning I had to chuckle at the message the DOT had put on the LED sign along the beltline:

Drive now. Catch Pokemon later.

[RIP-Felix]

I kicked my Pokemon habbit about 15 years ago and am resisting this fad. However, I thought that setting up a pokeshop (or whatever the equivalent is) at you place of business might be a good way to drive sales. Just getting warm bodies in the store is half the battle. I see this as another social media platform that will just be extorted into another marketing ploy. Getting positive association is difficult to accomplish for marketers, and businesses want customers to have a positive opinion about their company/brand. I can see this as one of thoes platforms, kinda like Mcdonalds play area and toys with a happy meal. It's not the product they sell, but instead a fun addon experience to drive brand loyalty.

[Kustom Kid]

I read a news story about this very thing the other day, @RIP-Felix. Stores that are Pokestops are setting up accounts just to use lures to get people to come to their stores to catch Pokemon. It's a fairly cheap way to help drive foot traffic. Yelp even has a Pokestop filter already for restaurants.

I went to a minor league baseball game Sunday, and all 4 corners of the field had active lures on their Pokestops for the entirety of the game. I'm not sure if it was the team, or random people setting them off, but that's still a good way to get people to walk around, and past, all of the concession stands.

[RIP-Felix]

Wow, in app purchases extending to out-of-app purchases...lol. They're on to something there. I'm not ready for this world. I feel like the guy who yells at kids to stay off the lawn and says "in my day we had REAL video games!" (actually I am that guy now).  I'm starting to fell old.